Disney backtracks following controversy over ‘knowledge transfers’.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: In a move that is bound to see similar action soon in many corporate offices all over the United States, and is no doubt prompted in part by an US Labor Department investigation of visa violations by Indian IT services giants Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, Disney ABC Television Group has apparently canceled a contract with Cognizant Technology Solutions to provide temporary services, and decided to rescind the pink slip notices given to an in-house team of 30 to 35 application developers.
The team of IT application workers at Disney ABC were laid off on May 28, and were told their last day at work would be end of June. The period included ‘knowledge transfer’ session for their replacements, provided by US-based IT services company Cognizant, who employ a large number of workers from India.
However, that decision came abruptly to an end yesterday, on Thursday, when the Disney ABC TV Media Technology & Strategy development team told the developers that their layoffs were being rescinded, reported Computerworld.
The report quoted an unidentified Disney ABC IT employee speculating that the about turn came about following uproar over Disney firing several dozen IT workers at its theme parks, and humiliatingly forced to – at the cost of getting severance packages – train visa workers from India, who usurped their jobs, in April.
Some of the fired workers at the theme parks were veterans with Disney, and many workers complained, in reports published by Computerworld, and The New York Times, that the workers from India seemed like they were fresh out of college with limited skill sets, and not comfortable speaking English. The two stories generated condemnation from readers with more than 3,000 comments pouring in to blast Disney for its arbitrary action.
However, a Disney source said there was no connection between recent news stories and the company’s IT plans, reported Computerworld, on the goings on at Disney ABC.
The report said: “The intent of the outsourcing at Disney ABC was to turn over “sustainment,” or application development and maintenance work, to the contractors. Employees said that — as they understood it — they would shift to more modern and interesting work. But the workers became wary, particularly after learning of the outsourcing at the Parks and Resorts division.”
An earlier story in The American Bazaar, described the humiliating process the Disney workers who got laid off at its theme parks division, had to undergo. In the first phase, the foreign worker sat next to the American worker in “knowledge transfer sessions,” and videotaped everything they said and did, and then reviewed the tapes with the American worker to ensure accuracy.
In the second phase, the guest worker began working alongside the American worker, who was supposed to oversee and critique them. And in the last 30 days the guest worker completely took over the American worker’s job, while the American worker sat by and watched, tasked only with keeping them from making serious mistakes.
Read the earlier story in The American Bazaar:
“It was really, extremely uncomfortable,” an ex-employee said to the Daily Caller. “You’re thinking ‘I can’t believe that I’ve worked this many years for this company, and I’ve worked these crazy on-call hours, and I’ve worked in the middle of the night on all these projects, and they’re just replacing me with somebody from India. And then that person is in the same room with you.”
On their last day of employment, he and the other replaced workers were asked to turn over their badges, their Disney season passes, their laptops and then asked to leave.
“It was just a complete shock that you could do that in this country,” he said, revealing that his lawyer plans to file a class action lawsuit soon against Disney. “I’m a really patriotic person, and I just can’t see more people suffer because of this. It’s just so humiliating and so anti-American. It’s just, it’s just terrible. It’s just awful.”
It’s not only Disney who has indulged in the practice to get big IT services companies to handle their technical operations. In the recent past, Fossil and Southern California Edison have replaced their long-time workers with Indian workers, with similar ‘knowledge transfer sessions.’ Agitated workers at Southern California Edison have said they intend to file a lawsuit.
1 Comment
These companies not only violate US visa laws buy in Canada, the UK, Australia and EU. The misrepresentation on visa application is so obvious but no one dares validate those or ask question. I bet these Indian companies are involved in bribes with government officials. The investigators will be offered bribes